MY OPINION: OUR GUNS HAVE CHANGED SHOULDN’T OUR LAWS?
The Second Amendment of the Constitution was written in 1791. These are the guns that were used: Brown Bess Musket,Charleville Musket, American-made Muskets, Long Rifles, Pattern 1776 Infantry Rifle and the Ferguson Rifle.TODAY WE HAVE GUNS THAT CAN KILL 59 AND INJURE ALMOST 500 PEOPLE IN 9 MINUTES.
The 2nd Amendment reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

TAKE ACTION!

TAKE ACTION: Ask your Congress people and Senators to introduce gun control legislation. MANY OF THE 439 gun deaths so far in 2017 COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED IF THERE WERE:

Background checks on all firearm purchases (guns and ammunition) in gun stores, gun shows and online with a 5 day waiting period.

All new guns must be sold with fingerprint recognition. For a gun to be used, the trigger must recognize the fingerprint of its registered owner, which would eliminate crimes with stolen guns and potentially some suicides.

People on the DO NOT FLY LIST could not buy guns.

People who have been convicted of domestic violence or have a restraining order by a spouse/ partner could not buy guns.

People who are mentally ill could not buy guns.

Firearms only meant to kill people should be banned. Limit high capacity magazines and repeating clips.

Silencers should be illegal. What if the people in Las Vegas couldn’t hear the guns over the music?

SUPPORT the BILL TO BAN BUMP STOCKS: SENATOR FEINSTEIN INTRODUCES BIILL TO BAN BUMP STOCKS: the bill states: “It shall be unlawful for any person to import, sell, manufacture, transfer or possess, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, a trigger crank, a bump-fire device or any part, combination of parts, component, device, attachment or accessory that is designed or functions to accelerate the rate of fire of a semiautomatic rifle but not convert the semiautomatic rifle into a machine gun,” the bill states. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sen-feinstein-introducing-bill-ban-bump-stocks-vegas/story?id=50276506

WHY ACTION IS IMPORTANT?

The National Rifle Association (NRA) is the strongest lobby in Washington DC. Since the Supreme Court Ruling on Citizen’s United Corportations can now donate to political campaigns. The NRA also donates heavily to the Republican Party and other Political Action Committees (PAC).

Find out who has taken money in your state:

HOW MUCH HAS THE NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION DONATED TO YOUR CONGRESS PEOPLE? CHECK THIS INTERACTIVE CHART. Since 1998, the National Rifle Association has donated $3,533,294 to current members of Congress. Explore below to see how much money has been donated to members of Congress in your state.

The NRA DONATIONS $241,020 TO CALIFORNIA MEMBERS OF CONGRESS: currently in office.

WHAT/ WHO FUNDS THE NRA? Prior to the passage of the McClure-Volkmer Act signed by President Reagan 1986, interstate ammunition sales by common carrier to private individuals were banned and records were maintained of ammunition sales. McClure-Volkmer ended these limited controls on interstate — and opened up a new financial funding stream for the NRA.
Today the NRA receives millions of dollars from online sales of ammunition, high-capacity ammunition magazines, and other accessories through the Round-Up Program, created by top NRA benefactor Larry Potterfield. Potterfield is founder and head of MidwayUSA, which claims to stock “[j]ust about everything for shooting, reloading, gunsmithing and hunting,” including ammunition and high-capacity ammunition magazines. The Round-Up Program encourages buyers to “round-up” their purchase to the nearest dollar with the difference going to the NRA.​’ ‘Alleged Aurora mass shooter James Holmes’ ability to reportedly purchase more than six thousand rounds of ammunition online without any record-keeping is the direct result of Congressional passage of the National Rifle Association’s flagship bill of the 1980s: the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-sugarmann/nra-reaps-profits-from-th_b_1698652.html

HOW? in a program that cost half a billion dollars and was funded by raising taxes on healthcare. The entire overhaul took only months to implement.

THE RESULTS: THE US HAS 29.7 GUN DEATHS PER MILLION PEOPLE AUSTRALIA HAS 1.4 GUN DEATHS PER MILLION PEOPLE. The number of mass shootings in Australia—dropped from 13 in the 18-year period before 1996 to zero after the Port Arthur massacre. Between 1995 and 2006, gun-related homicides and suicides in the country dropped by 59 percent and 65 percent, respectively, though these declines appear to have since leveled off. Two academics who have studied the impact of the reform initiative estimate that the gun-buyback program saves at least 200 lives each year, according to The New York Times. In a multinational study for the Small Arms Survey, Marcus Wilson cited the Australian case as an example of the most efficacious type of government effort to control arms and measurably reduce armed violence, in which weapons-collection programs are combined with legislative reform, campaigns to shift public opinion, and civil-society involvement.

AUSTRALIA HOMICIDE RATE 1 DEATH FOR EVERY 100,000 PEOPLE, THE U.S. IS 10 PER EVERY 100,000: With Australia’s population steadily increasing, the nation’s homicide incident rate has fallen even more than the number of homicides — from 1.6 per 100,000 in 1995-96 to 1 per 100,000 in 2013-2014, according to a government report on crime trends. That was the lowest homicide incident rate at the time in 25 years, as we mentioned earlier.

“In the seven years before the NFA (1989-1995), the average annual firearm suicide death rate per 100,000 was 2.6 (with a yearly range of 2.2 to 2.9); in the seven years after the buyback was fully implemented (1998-2004), the average annual firearm suicide rate was 1.1 (yearly range 0.8 to 1.4).”

“In the seven years before the NFA, the average annual firearm homicide rate per 100,000 was .43 (range .27 to .60) while for the seven years post NFA, the average annual firearm homicide rate was .25 (range .16 to .33).”

“[T]he drop in firearm deaths was largest among the type of firearms most affected by the buyback.”

The authors, however, noted that “no study has explained why gun deaths were falling, or why they might be expected to continue to fall.” That poses difficulty in trying to definitively determine the impact of the law, they write.

“Whether or not one wants to attribute the effects as being due to the law, everyone should be pleased with what happened in Australia after the NFA — the elimination of firearm massacres (at least up to the present) and an immediate, and continuing, reduction in firearm suicide and firearm homicide,” the authors write.http://www.factcheck.org/2017/10/gun-control-australia-updated/

What Works and Doesn’t Work in Reducing Gun Deaths

Requiring all sellers to run background checks on anyone who buys a gun.

7.3

86%

Preventing sales of all firearms to people who have been convicted of violent misdemeanors, including domestic assaults.

7.1

83%

Preventing sales of all firearms to people who have been convicted of stalking another person

6.5

85%

Requiring all gun owners to possess a license for their firearm.

6.4

78%

Requiring all sellers to run background checks on anyone who buys ammunition.

6.4

72%

Banning the sale and ownership of all semi-automatic and automatic firearms.

6.1

63%

Preventing sales of all firearms to people who have been reported as dangerous to law enforcement by a mental health provider.

6.0

87%

Requiring all owners to report lost or stolen firearms.

6.0

88%

Banning the sale and ownership of all ammunition magazines with a capacity greater than 10 bullets.

5.8

63%

Requiring that all firearms be recorded in a national registry.

5.7

70%

Expanding screening and treatment for the mentally ill.

5.6

86%

Requiring that all gun buyers demonstrate a a ”genuine need” for a gun, such as a law enforcement job or hunting.

5.6

49%

Requiring all guns to microstamp each bullet with a mark that uniquely matches the gun and bullet.

5.5

65%

Increasing minimum penalties for people found possessing firearms illegally.

5.4

80%

Requiring gun dealers to keep, retain and report all gun records and sales to the Federal government.

5.4

80%

Banning the sale and ownership of assault rifles or similar firearms.

5.0

67%

Requiring all gun owners to register their fingerprints.

5.0

72%

Preventing sales of all firearms and ammunition to anyone considered to be a “known or suspected terrorist” by the F.B.I.

4.9

89%

Requiring a mandatory waiting period of three days after gun is purchased before it can be taken home.

4.8

77%

Limiting the number of guns that can be purchased to one per month.

4.8

67%

Limiting the amount of ammunition you can purchase within a given time period.

4.4

64%

Requiring that all gun owners store their guns in a safe storage unit.

4.4

76%

Banning firearms from all workplace settings nationally.

4.3

60%

Requiring that gun buyers complete safety training and a test for their specific firearm.

4.1

79%

Implementing a national “buy-back” program for all banned firearms and magazines, where the government pays people to turn in illegal guns.

3.9

74%

Banning firearms from schools and college campuses nationally.

3.8

68%

Requiring that all gun owners store their guns with childproof locks.

3.5

82%

Requiring every state to honor out-of-state permits to carry a concealed weapon.

1.7

73%

Authorizing stand-your-ground laws nationally that allow people to defend themselves using lethal force without needing to retreat first.

1.7

71%

How We Made Our Matrix

To build a list of possible policies, we consulted the academic literature on laws from American states and foreign countries and spoke with advocates for gun rights and gun control. Both surveys were conducted in June of last year.

For our effectiveness survey, we asked experts in gun policy to evaluate each idea on a scale of 1 to 10, according to how effective they thought it would be in reducing fatalities. We asked the experts to ignore considerations of political or legal feasibility.

Our expert panel consisted of 32 current or retired academics in criminology, public health and law, who have published extensively in peer-reviewed academic journals on gun policy. We know our sample is small and may not include every expert that readers would like consulted. But we feel it represents a useful, if imperfect, measure of what people steeped in the research think might save lives.

Special thanks to the Fraternal Order of Police and the Major Cities Chiefs Association for distributing the survey to their membership.

INFORMATION and STATISTICS

GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA EXPLAINED IN 17 MAPS AND CHARTS

America is an exceptional country when it comes to guns. It’s one of the few countries in which the right to bear arms is constitutionally protected. But America’s relationship with guns is unique in another crucial way: Among developed nations, the US is far and away the most violent — in large part due to the easy access many Americans have to firearms. These charts and maps show what that violence looks like compared with the rest of the world, why it happens, and why it’s such a tough problem to fix.

1) America has six times as many firearm homicides as Canada, and nearly 16 times as many as Germany

2) America has 4.4 percent of the world’s population, but almost half of the civilian-owned guns around the world

3) There have been more than 1,500 mass shootings since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting (December 2012)

4) On average, there is more than one mass shooting for each day in America

5) States with more guns have more gun deaths

6) It’s not just the US: Developed countries with more guns also have more gun deaths

Austria- 3.2 deaths per 100,000 people from the American Journal of the Medicine chart

“Murder is the second leading cause of death among Americans aged 15 to 24, the study found. The research also showed that murder was the third leading cause of death among those aged 25-34. Compared to those in the same age groups in other wealthy countries, Americans aged 15-24 are 49 times more likely to be the victim of a gun-related murder. For those aged 25-34, that number is 32 times more likely, the research revealed.” https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-u-s-gun-deaths-compare-to-other-countries/

The Second Amendment of the Constitution: “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. On December 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments to the Constitution) was adopted, having been ratified by three-fourths of the states.”

2.2017: Trump ROLLS BACK an Obama-era REGULATION THAT MADE IT HARDER FOR PEOPLE WITH MENTAL ILLNESSES TO BUY GUNS.

The rule, which was finalized in December 2016, added people receiving Social Security checks for mental illnesses and people deemed unfit to handle their own financial affairs to the national background check database, which would have added about 75,000 names to that database. President Barack Obama recommended the now-nullified regulation in a 2013 memo following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which left 20 first graders and six others dead. The measure sought to block some people with severe mental health problems from buying guns. The original rule was hotly contested by gun rights advocates who said it infringed on Americans’ Second Amendment rights. Gun control advocates, however, praised the rule for curbing the availability of firearms to those who may not use them with the right intentions.

HOW STRONG ARE THE GUN LAWS IN YOUR STATE? Look at the interactive map. They analyzed the following criteria: We looked at five types of gun control enacted at the state level: assault weapons bans, high-capacity magazine bans, gun possession prohibitions for high-risk individuals, gun possession prohibitions for individuals with domestic violence convictions and mandatory background checks.https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/national/assault-weapons-laws/?utm_term=.d67c161b22a6

60% OF GUN DEATHS ARE SUICIDES, which SUPPORTS GUN CONTROL– Not all of those suicides are by gun, but a majority are. And while some people feeling suicidal impulses will choose another method if a gun is not at hand, public health researchers cite two reasons guns are particularly dangerous: 1) Guns are more lethal than most other methods people try, so someone who attempts suicide another way is more likely to survive; 2) Studies suggest that suicide attempts often occur shortly after people decide to kill themselves, so people with deadly means at hand when the impulse strikes are more likely to use them than those who have to wait or plan.THAT MEANS THAT STRATEGIES THAT MAKE SUICIDE MORE INCONVENIENT OR DIFFICULT CAN SAVE LIVES. Guns, when they are in the home, can make self-harm both easy and deadly. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/09/upshot/gun-deaths-are-mostly-suicides.html

For years we have been ignored, had the 2nd Amendment thrown at us…and all the time Citizens United has given the opportunity for the NRA to control and purchase our government…maybe we have to start there…undo their legal rights. I’m frustrated trying to fight guns. Maybe fight the law.

Someone has obviously NOT done their research. When the Framers scripted the 2nd Amendment, “assault rifles” with high capacity “clips”, and the ability to shoot hundreds of rounds per minute already EXISTED! Puckle gun is one example, and was actually conscripted for use for mass purchase by James Madison. Soooo, no, it has NOTHING to do with muskets or singable shot rifles. And if you take any issue the facts that Inhave laid out against your very opinionated and non-fact based essay, than i urge you to read the one document that Gun Control proponents conveniently want to pretend doesn’t exist, and that is the Federalist Papers.

The first step is to delete the term “Gun Control” both verbally and in writing. The NRA pounces on that ideology. We want Gun Safety. There are over 100 gun laws in the USA now, but not working. The military and police should be the only ones to use automatic weapons. Civilians have no need for AR 16s and the like. Shot guns for skeet shooting and/or duck hunting. 22 long rifle and hand guns for target practice. Gun stores must stop selling military type assault rifles, with multi round clips, over the counter. Gun shows must not exist anymore !!! Gangs must no longer own guns. Most gun owners think safety, but not all are educated though a state class and tested. That is of utmost importance. There is no simple answer. The 2nd Amendment has 3 ideas in it. The NRA uses only 1 of the 3. How about the fact that it was written over 200 years ago, when our country did not have the 4 military divisions. The only towns people were gathered as a Militia, to defend their homes and businesses in town. Law abiding citizens should not be forced to surrender their guns because of a few bad people.